Sans Pareil/Adelphi Theatres Seasonal Digests: 1806-1899

Contents

List of Illustrations

Book 2
Introduction

Editors try to capture the spirit of the times.  While discussing the improvements to Ben Webster's new theatre in 1858, the Illustrated Times (Jan 1, 1859) praised the new ticketing arrangements:  "admission money is paid [and] the theatre-goer has secured his seat for the night without any ulterior trouble, without any chance of having it taken from him." Significantly, the paper adds:  "of another new feature in the new theatre, we have some doubt:  all the check-takers and box-openers are females." Webster was ahead of his times in hiring women.  In 1847, the Theatrical Times complained box-keepers were "noted for their incivility and excessively disobliging propensities" and referred to "the most rapacious and cormorantly inclined box-keeper." Such information is seldom found in traditional theatre histories.

Readers will find commentary on the performances and an assessment of their popularity.  Reviews are used extensively throughout.  If possible, there is a summary of the plot, criticism of performers and an account of scenic effects.  For example, in the 1879-1880 season, the Daily Telegraph praises the sensation scene (but little else) in Dion Boucicault's Rescued.  It "is to the carpenter and not the author that praise is due…A bridge is swung aside at the moment when a train bearing the hero and his fortunes is about to cross" and goes on to reveal what happens next.  (The spoiler alert had yet to be born.)  According to the same source, the audience's morality is affronted by the scene in which Lady Sybil makes advances to the engine driver.

Advertising found a home at the Adelphi.  A critical note, published in the 1880s, laments those occupying the gallery receive an inferior, thin, folio sheet, heavily and "odoriferously" printed while those in the expensive seats are "given a scented, octavo programme advertising the perfumer." Programs had space for advertising, bills did not.  It was a win-win situation.  The enterprising expatriate Frenchman, Eugène Rimmel, not only invented the first non-toxic mascara but was responsible for the first "Smell-O-Vision" play.  In the 1871 pantomime, Little Snowwhite, a Fairy Tale (by Charles Millward), Rimmel was credited with adding perfume to the waterfall.

The digests are a perfect home for details about performers—their appearance, popularity and ability.  For example, the Theatrical Observer (December 11, 1844), looking back to the birth of the Sans Pareil, prints a carefully modulated description of Jane M. Scott's appearance and talent.

It was delicately hinted that the greedy public not only expected intrinsic merit for their money, but also that it must be hallowed o'er with beauty to secure the first impression.  Now Miss Scott, in addition to some natural defects, had the smallpox and rickets unfavorably, but as genius comes in all disguises, she really had great talent, both as an actress and a writer.

Useful information indeed although the reader is left puzzling how it was possible to have smallpox and rickets favorably.

With the Adelphi are connected the names of many performers famous in their day:  Frederick Yates, Edward Wright, Paul Bedford, John L. Toole, Madame Céline Céleste, Mrs. Fitzwilliam, Mrs. Keeley, Ben N. Webster, Dion Boucicault, the Billingtons, as well as names whose only record is found in the playbills and programs.  During the later seasons of the century, the two great draws were William Terriss and Jessie Millward, who, besides being lovers, took on the roles of "hero" and "heroine" at the Adelphi.  The 1897-1898 digest is the appropriate place for an account of the murder of matinee idol "Breezy Bill."

Editors note such important theatrical developments as the royalty system, which began with the production of Boucicault's The Colleen Bawn in the 1860-1861 season.  He proposed to Ben Webster they share the profits.  Whereas the playwright had made £300 for his highly successful, London Assurance (1841, Covent Garden), he now found himself richer by ten thousand pounds.

Adaptations of contemporary authors flourished at the Adelphi and are recorded in the digests.  In 1846, the Theatrical Times complained translations of foreign plays are preferred over those written by native talent.  Moreover, native talent was spurned.  "Some thousands of plays of all kinds are…submitted to the managers of our theatres for their approval.  They are taken in, doomed never to see the light again."

It is true that in the mid-19th century, the Adelphi hosted some French operettas, including La Belle Hélène, but in 1867, the Adelphi gave English comic opera a boost by hosting the premiere of Arthur Sullivan's first successful comic opera, Cox and Box.   Such information is found in the digests.

The endless demand for new plays discouraged any attempt to write thoughtful dramas, so adaptations and translations (particularly from the French) flourished.  Many stories and novels by Charles Dickens were adapted for the Adelphi stage.  The first was John Baldwin Buckstone's The Christening (1834), a farce based on the story "The Bloomsbury Christening."  More of Dickens' early works appeared, including William Rede's The Peregrinations of Pickwick; or, Boz-i-a-na (1837).  Edward Stirling adapted Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby in 1838.  An attempt to dispense with the novelist himself produced The Fortunes of Smike; or, A Sequel to Nicholas Nickleby, which did not prosper, and Stirling returned to the master with The Old Curiosity Shop; or, One Hour from Humphrey's Clock (1840).  Soon Dickens was making arrangements with theatres to adapt his work.  At least, he had some remuneration for his efforts.

While Dickens was a particular favorite of Adelphi audiences, native dramatists eventually began coming into their own.  James R. Planché, William Buckstone, Mark Lemon, John Oxenford, Henry Pettitt, George Sims, Frederick Yates and Tom Taylor tried hard to raise the taste of audiences.  Dion Boucicault staged more plays at the Adelphi than elsewhere—thirty-seven.  He finally gained audience sympathies for the plight of the distressed Irish.

Editors draw attention to the differing genres as they grew and diminished in popularity.  These designations reflect changing tastes, not only of the Adelphi audience but others.  The patent houses lurched from crisis to crisis, but the Adelphi generally prospered.  Originally opened as a place to perform songs, dances and recitations, the house evolved into the home of "Adelphi Screamers"—melodramas in the modern sense of the word, with appropriate terror and romance—all found amidst the most dramatic of settings.

The digests may be eclectic, but they are none the worse for it.

GBC

Sans Pareil Theatre Seasonal Digest 1806-1807
Ed. John W. Brokaw

Miss Scott developed strong symptoms of dramatic disease and though her extraordinary talent was undoubted by her father and friends, it was delicately hinted that the greedy public not only expected intrinsic merit for their money, but also that it must be hallowed o'er with beauty to secure the first impression.  Now Miss Scott, in addition to some natural defects had the smallpox and rickets unfavourably, but as genius comes in all disguises, she really had great talent, both as an actress and a writer.  Scott was induced to gut the back of his warehouse in The Strand, and fit it up as a theatre where his daughter might safely indulge her predilection for the stage.  Here for some two or three years, assisted by some young people, her pupils, she dramatised and acted away to a subscription party of her own friends (December 11, 1844).

Scott must have been convinced by these amateur theatricals, for he decided to replace the makeshift building with a small new private theatre, probably constructed in 1804, which was transformed into a well-appointed house in 1806.  As Nelson observes, the time was right for opening a new popular theatre, and the shrewd Scott was well equipped for his venture:  Scott "had the ingredients for a theatre:  the magic lantern, his knowledge of fabrics such as those used in curtains, drapes, and screens; his skill as a dyer and colourer; and a talented daughter who could sing and play" (p. 3).

"Old Scott," the Theatrical Observer said, "very wisely obtained a license for a minor performance chiefly provided by his clever daughter and, thinking of her alone, called [his theatre] The Sans Pareil and opened the doors to chance customers."  The Theatre, a small house without a gallery, was built in 1806 by Mr. Jay of London Wall to the designs of the architect, Samuel Beazley (Howard, London Theatres and Music Halls, 1850-1950, p. 2).  In fact, Jay was reconstructing the 1804 theatre.  A notice of November 21, 1806 informs the public that "the theatre is perfectly dry, having been finished upwards of two years in a manner, the proprietors trust, will meet their approbation" (Adelphi Scrapbook).

In his discussion of one-man shows, Richard L. Klepac places Miss Scott in a long line of English solo actors:  Samuel Foote, George Alexander Stevens, Charles Lee Lewes, John Palmer, John Collins, Charles Dibdin (who would give one performance at the Sans Pareil in 1808), Rees, Jack Bannister, and later and also at the Sans Pareil/Adelphi, Charles Mathews (Mr. Mathews at Home, pp. 9-11).  An evening at the Sans Pareil this season consisted of songs and recitations "written, composed spoken, sung, and accompanied by Miss Scott," followed by "an optical exhibition of visionary objects" and then a shadow play which included fireworks.  It appears that after January 11 the second and third parts of the bill were abbreviated and re-titled, and Jane M. Scott's new entertainment, Rural Visitors; or, Singularity, possibly longer than her first entertainment, The Rout (advertised to run forty-five minutes), became the main attraction.

Strictly speaking, none of the entertainments this season was dramatic.  Each piece has been entered in the calendar as if it were so that the reader will have an idea of what was performed.  The "optical exhibition of visionary objects" was described as "something in the manner of the Phantasmagorias."  It was, like the Paris and Lyceum Phantasmagorias, a ghost show, calling up the famous dead (including the Man in Iron Mask, Jane Shore and Ixion on the wheel).  Richard Altick says the Lyceum profited "from the same popular relish for managed spectral visitations" that explained the popularity of Gothic novels (The Shows of London, p. 217).  Obviously, the Scotts hoped to profit in the same way.  If John Scott's machinery resembled that of the Phantasmagoria, "the source of light was a magic lantern placed at a distance behind a semitransparent screen a movable carriage and adjustable lenses enabled the images to be increased or decreased as the effect (the illusion of ominously advancing or retreating figures) required.  The ghostly figures were painted on glass 'sliders,' the extraneous parts of which were blacked out so as to concentrate the light, and the audience's fearful attention, on the luminous images" (Altick p. 217).  Part two of the Sans Pareil program, then—in Altick's phrase this "frisson-filled communion with visible spirits"—must have contrasted sharply with Miss Scott's rendition of "Sweet Content" or her recitation of "Picklewell" in part one.  The third part of the entertainment, Vision in the Holy Land, or Godfrey of Bouillon's Dream, the narrative for which was written by Miss Scott, was a spectacle "representing, apparently in the air, an ancient grand battle in shadow, in which several thousand figures, armed in the costume of their time, are seen engaged."

The reviewers this season meted out both excessive praise and blunt criticism.  An 18 December review (a news clip of which is in James Winston's Adelphi Scrapbook) said that one of Miss Scott's songs "was rapturously applauded" and that one of her anecdotes "convulsed the audience with laughter."  A 12 January review deemed Rural Visitors "the best entertainment of the kind that ever appeared before the public."  But the Monthly Mirror of 7 January was less polite:  "The first part is particularly abundant in demerits:  songs and stories by Miss Scott (a Dibdin in petticoats).  The poor girl cannot help it, but her manner of performing her part is almost as unhappy as the matter of which it is fashioned.  The phantasmagoric evolutions are a shade better, but on the whole, it is not a proper combination to offer the public for an evening's entertainment."  George Frederick Cooke liked at least some of what he saw when he attended the theatre in 1806.  His brief diary comment says much:  "Miss Scott provided the first part of the entertainment at the Sans Pareil.  The second and third parts of the entertainment are very pleasing" (quoted in Harold Scott, The Early Doors, p. 94).

It is not known whether The Season was a financial success.  One review suggests attendance was not very good:  "The audience was numerous but not full; but we are persuaded it will be bumper every evening, when more generally known to the public."  At about the time of this review, in early December, 1806, John Scott reduced ticket prices from five to four shillings for box seats and places in the pit cost half a crown instead of four shillings.

It is possible the opening was scheduled for the 17th and had to be postponed.  However, there was an advertisement published for a performance on the 19th.  The advertisement for the 27th, makes no mention of its being the theatre's opening night.

JB/FM

Sans Pareil Theatre Seasonal Digest 1807-1808
Ed. John W. Brokaw

Gabriel Giroux had been dancing in London since 1786.  He and his children appeared regularly at the Royal Circus for several seasons before coming to the Sans Pareil.  Five Giroux daughters performed at the Sans Pareil between 1807 and 1813, but only two, Caroline and Louisa, are named in the surviving bills for 1807-8. A February review praises the work of "Little Giroux."  The principal dancer was Caroline Giroux.  Born in 1799, she had danced at the Circus when she was three.  In later years, as Mrs. Searle, she had a substantial independent career (Highfill, et al., Biographical Dictionary, VI, 227-8).  Gabriel Giroux helped with theatre management and stage production.  He also worked closely with Miss Scott, then writing her first plays and doing her first ensemble acting.  As one example of the collaboration between Giroux and Miss Scott, Giroux wrote the first piece of the season, the ballet The Fisherman's Daughter, and Miss Scott wrote the second piece, a musical entertainment Successful Cruize, which was described as "a continuation of The Fisherman's Daughter."  Jane Scott wrote four pieces in all, as did Giroux.  She showed her versatility and adaptability, always hallmarks of her work, in writing three pieces for the child performers.  The Magistrate, written for the adult actors, was successful enough to be revived in three later seasons.

Gabriel Giroux's Valdevina the Cruel; or, The Girl of the Desert was a "new grand serious spectacle" in three acts with twenty-four roles, choruses and supernumeraries.  Several promising young people performed in this dance spectacle, including Caroline Giroux, Master Leclercq (later the father of Carlotta and Rose) and Master Richard Flexmore.  Flexmore became a skilled eccentric dancer and fathered Richard Flexmore (1824-1860), a more famous dancer and pantomimist.  A 15 February review praised Giroux's Valdevina highly:  "The scenery, dresses and properties are magnificent; the music, by Sanderson, is melodious and scientific; the performance of Little Giroux is beyond description, particularly in the second and last scene, where a picture is formed which would do credit to the first painters; in fact, the tout ensemble of this beautiful piece surpasses all that has been produced at any theatre" (Adelphi Scrapbook).

In addition to engaging Gabriel Giroux, the Scotts acquired their first scenic designer, Morris.  In addition, they engaged an experienced bandleader and composer, James Sanderson, who had previously worked with both J. C. Cross and the younger Charles Dibdin.  Sanderson contributed much to this theatre in its early years.

The Sans Pareil also began to establish itself as a variety house.  This focus is apparent from the first evening, when the incidental entertainments included songs, dances, "imitations of celebrated performers" and fireworks.  Among the entertainers were Mrs. McCartney, who as Miss Minton had begun at Sadler's Wells in 1800, and Andrew Campbell, an amateur at this time, whose impersonations would win him popularity in his several years at the theatre.

The season ended on April 9, after some 112 performances.  From July to early September 1808, the Covent Garden corps de ballet leased the house.  On September 19, the elder Charles Dibdin gave his one-man show, Rent Day; or, The Yeoman's Friend.

JB/FM

Sans Pareil Theatre Seasonal Digest Summer 1808
Ed. John W. Brokaw

The company was under the management of Holland, Louis, and Grant—all of Covent Garden.  Ryall arranged most of the choreography.  It is impossible to determine how many nights the season lasted, as there are few existing records from the first decade of the Sans Pareil's existence.

During the evening's performance, there were songs by Woolf and King.  Included among the titles were "Black-Eyed Susan,"  "May the King Live Forever," and "The Wig"—the last by Charles Dibdin, the younger.  It was King who made Dibdin's "songs 'Giles Scroggins' Ghost' and 'Call Again Tomorrow' with many others, so popular" (Charles Dibdin's Memoirs, p. 54).

Andrew Campbell performed his popular imitations of familiar actors in their best-known roles.

During the pantomime Beauty; or, Harlequin of the Black Isles, Signor Saxoni was engaged for twelve nights to walk the tightrope.  Charles Dubois, following in his famous father, Jean Baptiste Dubois's footsteps was "clown to the rope."  This character was a buffoon who kept the audience amused while the ropedancer was not in motion.  The clown attempted some of the tricks himself, and by his utter failure amplified his master's achievement.

Thomas Blanchard, the Pantaloon, had a long career.  He was said "to be a magnet at the minors" (Dibdin's Memoirs, p. 136).  He did reappear at the Adelphi in the early twenties and was successor to Richard Norman at Covent Garden, but the Times was not overly impressed with him.

Blanchard's Pantaloon is clever, but it wants humour.  The real Pantaloons should be a kind of Polonius in Motley.  Everybody admits that he deserves to be beaten and cheated, but then one is sorry for him, on account of his gray hairs and the foolishness of his old age as when the other "meddling fool" is stabbed behind the arras.  The fault of Mr. Blanchard is that he excites no sympathy.  If he is knocked down, or jumped upon, or even killed, you are glad of it (27 December 1828, qtd. in David Mayer, Harlequin in his Element, p. 43).

Mrs. Ridgway was the wife of the Harlequin who appeared with Charles Dibdin at Sadler's Wells.  She had sons who later appeared at the Adelphi, and according to Dibdin, they possessed "much merit, and promise to follow the steps of their father who was, in his grade of performing, taking skill and versatility of talent together, unrivalled" (Memoirs, p. 90).

Besides the headliners, there were also those who made a living but not a splash—Miss Vallency (or Valancy) who played a barmaid was still playing small roles fifteen years later.  For example, she appeared once as a stand-in at Drury Lane in 1823 dancing Columbine for the frequently ailing Ann Maria Tree in The Golden Axe (James Winston, Drury Lane Journal, p. 63).

Woolf sang the famous "Description of a Storm" by George Alexander Stevens, which became such a familiar favorite at the Adelphi in subsequent years.

The season was successful; a clipping in the Adelphi Scrapbook states, "on Saturday week the corps de ballet of Covent Garden Theatre will close their labours at the Sans Pareil in the Strand.  It appears they have made a successful campaign by their efforts to please the public."

JB/GBC

Sans Pareil Theatre Seasonal Digest 1808-1809

Ed. John W. Brokaw

A small group of mature, skilled actors succeeded the largely juvenile company of the 1807-08 season this year.  Some of these had been at Covent Garden when it burned in September 1808, including John Isaacs, Mrs. James F. Pyne and Slader.  (It is possible that both S. Slader and Abraham Slader were at the theatre this season.)  Lewin and Garbois, who were at Drury Lane when it burned in February 1809, came in the summer.  Mrs. Garbois made her "first appearance on any stage" at this time as well.  An important member of the company was James Kirby, at various times in his career clown, dancer, scene painter and acting manager.  Denham returned for a second season, and Hunt, described by the younger Charles Dibdin as "a clever little man," stayed from January to April, when he went to Sadler's Wells.  He returned to the Sans Pareil the next winter.  Mrs. Ridgway was Columbine this summer, as she had been in the previous year.

Most of the pieces given through April were the work of Jane Scott.  The Magistrate, her successful play of the preceding season, returned in December 1808, for thirty-five performances.  She performed The Rout, a song and recitation piece from the 1806-07 season, at her March 1809 benefit.  Miss Scott also wrote at least three new pieces for the present season.  The Bashaw:  or, Midnight Adventures of Three Spaniards, a "new musical melo Turkish piece," ran fifty-nine nights and was revived the next season.  A laudatory review in the Times for 31 January said, "places at the Sans Pareil Theatre will soon be at a premium if the proprietor continues to bring forward such pieces as The Bashaw .... Miss Scott plays and sings the female Bashaw to admiration, nor does she look the worse for the assumed mustachios.... The other interludes are various and excellent and we are happy to add that the house is uncommonly well attended" (clipping in James Winston's Adelphi Scrapbook).  The whole strength of the company appeared in this piece, as it did in The Red Robber; or, The Statue in the Wood, a "grand new serio-comic spectacle" which ran the first sixty-seven nights of the season.  Miss Scott's first pantomime, Mother White Cap; or, Hey Up the Chimney, played from February to May.  Kirby was Clown and Lardner Pantaloon.  Hunt and Lewin played Harlequin and Madame Louis and Mrs. Ridgway Columbine.

The latter part of the summer saw brief runs of many pieces:  comedies such as The Glimmer; or Sir Solomon's Wedding; the spectacles Double Defeat; or British Tars and Austrian Troops and Female Courage; or The Banditti of the Rock; the ballets Rozelli and Rosa and The Fish and the Ring; and the pantomimes The Deserter of Naples and Harlequin Cottager; or The Wandering Fairy.  E. L. Blanchard in his "History of the Adelphi" notes that Harlequin Cottager was "written by and produced under the direction of Mr. Kirby, who not only designed and painted all the scenery, but acted Clown to the Harlequin of Mr. Garbois and the Columbine of Mrs. Ridgway" (Era Almanac, 1877, p. 2).

The Sans Pareil was a lively variety house once again.  Henry Hengler walked the rope in the winter and the famous "Charming" Jack Richer did the same in the summer.  Garbois leaped over ten men, and James Kirby danced on two ladders.  Andrew Campbell gave his imitations of London actors.  He also sang, as did Miss Samuels and Miss Ingle, Slader and Miss Woods.  Goodwin, later ballet master at this house for a season, danced on the same program with Mrs. Ridgway, and he danced with Miss Twamley from the Opera House.  Though Giroux's dance pupils of the preceding season had departed, several children performed.  Master Aubun, an "infant phenomenon" whom Dibdin introduced at Sadler's Wells the previous spring, helped open the season on 3 December.  He was advertised as a self-taught violinist, five years of age.  Master Whale, "under seven years of age," danced a pas seul in January.  Master James Wallack, "late of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane," performed in July.

This season the Sans Pareil enjoyed some stability in its staffing.  Gabriel Giroux was now an experienced manager.  James Sanderson was returning for his second season as bandleader and composer.  Morris again designed and built the scenery.  John Scott, free from day-to-day managing, concentrated on the stage machinery and on his "splendid artificial fireworks, unequalled in Europe" (news clip, 31 December 1808).

JB/FM

Sans Pareil Theatre Seasonal Digest 1809-1810
Ed. John W. Brokaw

The company changed substantially from that of 1808.  Its strength was in singing and pantomime.  Three singers stand out:  William Broadhurst, John Isaacs and James F. Pyne; all later achieved some success at Covent Garden and the English Opera.  Broadhurst, the younger Charles Dibdin thought, had a "perhaps unparalleled sweetness of voice, in a Man" (Memoirs, p. 97).  Isaacs, a bass, sang in the 1826 world premiere of Weber's Oberon at Covent Garden (White, A History of English Opera, p. 256).  In his three years at the Sans Pareil, according to the Biography of the British Stage, he became a "deserved favorite."  James Pyne apparently relied on his voice alone to make his way in the theatre.  The Biography of the British Stage asserted, "this pleasing vocalist ... has no ability as an actor."  However, this was not cause for dismay, since Pyne was engaged "to sing and not to act."  (At Jane Scott's benefit in March, Pyne and proprietor John Scott, "his first appearance on any stage," played the title roles in The Two Misers of Smyrna.  Good fun rather than exquisite acting must have been the aim of this entertainment.)

Miss Scott's pantomime, The Necromancer; or, The Golden Key, was a great success, running the whole season.  It was probably a somewhat different piece from week to week, with improvisations and interludes not announced on the bills.  In fact, management's failure to say exactly what would or would not be presented on a given evening led to some disappointment and unruliness in the audience, disrupting The Necromancer on 11 and 12 January.  These ructions resulted in a declaration of policy on the bill by management:  "Whatever is named shall be produced but nothing but what is inserted in the bills and advertisements of the day shall be brought forward" (22 January).  Auld was Harlequin this year, his first of three successive seasons at the theatre.  Lardner returned as Pantaloon and James Kirby as Clown.  Mrs. Elizabeth Pincott was Columbine most of the run.  In her absence, Miss Ruggles began to establish herself in the role; she made a favorable impression on the Persian Ambassador, at whose command she took a benefit on 3 April when she danced Columbine.

At least two pieces by the prolific Jane Scott played every evening this year.  Three works from prior seasons, The Red Robber, The Bashaw and The Magistrate, and a new piece, Mary, The Maid of the Inn, rotated throughout The Season.  Mary was a Gothic verse melodrama derived from Southey's poem.  Miss Scott complicated Southey's plot, and her surprise revelations at the denouement softened his stark vision.  This successful melodrama was revived in the 1811 and 1816 seasons.

John P. "Jack" Bologna and a "Miss" H. Bologna (who might be either his niece, the daughter of Louis Bologna, or the Harriet Bath Barnwell whom Jack married in 1800) joined the company this season.  Harriet was a principal dancer in both of the year's ballets and took minor roles in two other pieces.  Bologna brought the shadow show back to the Sans Pareil for the first time since the 1806 season when John Scott operated his machinery.  Bologna had been presenting such shows for several years when not engaged as Harlequin.  His Lilliput Island opened January 11 and played at intervals some thirty-four times.  It was described on the bills as "an interlude in five scenes."  In addition to these shadow shows, Bologna presented another of his Lenten productions, "Bologna's Mechanical Exhibitions."

Several performers associated with the Sans Pareil for many years made their first appearance this season, most of them in minor roles:  Godbee, Robert Stebbing, Swan, Mrs. Daly and Miss LeBrun.  John Scott again managed the theatre, and James Sanderson returned as composer and bandleader.

JB/FM

Sans Pareil Theatre Seasonal Digest Summer 1810
Ed. John W. Brokaw

John P. Bologna and his wife had been with Charles Dibdin, the younger, at Sadler's Wells and Dublin for several years.  The announcements for this season claimed Bologna and Mrs. Wybrow were the first Harlequin and Columbine in Europe.  Even allowing for the usual puffery of nineteenth (and twentieth) century theatre managers, this statement serves to remind the reader of the quality of performances at the Sans Pareil—even in its early days.

John Bologna was often billed as "Junior."  The father, his wife and two sons, Jack and Louis, and daughter Barbara were all on the stage.  John had some knowledge of chemistry and general science and was later to become a popular Lenten performer at the Adelphi.  His "Pictorial, Optical and Mechanical Exhibitions" were popular for many seasons.

The season included several songs performed mainly by William Pearman, who was to become a major singer on the stage, and John Isaacs.  The former sang "Bound Prentice to a Waterman" which became a favorite at the theatre.  Isaacs suffered the terrible misfortune of losing his sight some twenty years later, leading to a benefit at Covent Garden where "the public so liberally expressed their commiseration" (Dibdin Memoirs, p. 102).

There were some dances, including a "hornpipe of three" and a "hornpipe in fetters."  In the course of Fortune's Gift (28 May 1810), the comic dance from Mother Goose was performed by Richard Norman and Auld.

Master Edwards, four years old, performed "Protean exercises," but what forms they took is not described.  On May 28, despite his youth, he did a "drunken and dying" scene and on June 25 "several feats of activity"—again not described.

The number of performances this season is impossible to calculate accurately because sources are limited, but it certainly lasted longer than the summer season of 1808.  It was considerably less stressful than the season at the new Covent Garden Theatre, which had been truncated by the "Old Price" riots, lasting from 18 September to 15 December 1809.

Pieces remained essentially non-dramatic, in keeping with Scott's magistrate's license.  There was an emphasis on pantomime and spectacle performed by some of the prominent names of the stage:  Richard Norman, Jack Bologna, and Mrs. Wybrow.  There were three ballets because the company was composed in part of the Covent Garden Corps de Ballet.

It was the last summer season for these Covent Garden performers, but it is safe to assume the public was satisfied Bologna and Holland had "strained every nerve" and gained "the liberal sanction of a generous public."

JB/GBC

Sans Pareil Theatre Seasonal Digest 1810-1811
Ed. Frank McHugh

The Scott family was again very active.  One ballet, The Soldier's Frolic, was composed and danced by Goodwin, the new ballet master and choreographer.  All other pieces were written by Jane Scott, that "gifted artiste, and I may say Genius" (Charles Dibdin, the younger, Memoirs, p. 97).  Miss Scott acted in four of her pieces, giving well over a hundred performances.  Proprietor John Scott managed the theatre and served as machinist.  Bills call special attention to his "mechanical fall of snow" and other spectacular effects in the pantomime The Magic Pipe; or, Dancing Mad.  John Scott's son designed at least two scenes for this same piece.

The Sans Pareil had evolved beyond the point when everything depended on Jane Scott's imagination and her father's business acumen.  Maurice W. Disher recalls those first seasons:  "While she acted her own heroines, John Scott, in his shirt sleeves, packed people closer to increase the takings by five pounds a night" (Blood and Thunder, p. 216).  Perhaps another quality of the Scotts that Disher cites, their respect for the stage and their hospitality to actors, explains the rapid development of their company.  At any rate, it is not one-woman shows that distinguish this 1810-1811 season, but pantomimes, farces and variety acts—all requiring a diverse and able company.

The Sans Pareil presented a pantomime every evening. The Magic Pipe ran for sixty-three consecutive nights, then gave way to sixteen performances of The Necromancer; or, The Golden Key, which had played in the previous season, and then returned for a run of thirteen more nights.  Auld, Harlequin at the Haymarket in 1806, was the company's new Harlequin; Miss Ruggles danced as Columbine, and James Barnes appeared as Pantaloon.  By 1829, the Times was declaring Barnes "the best Pantaloon on the stage."  Later in his career, as A. E. Wilson said, "he was unique and unsurpassable; the most perfect type imaginable of senile imbecility, receiving knocks and cuffs with placid resignation and tottering about as if he perpetually expected to be knocked down and set up again like a nine pin" (King Panto, p. 115).  The versatile James Kirby, who would be at Drury Lane in 1811, was principal Clown, occasionally replaced by young George Bristow, brother-in-law to both Grimaldi and Jack Bologna, who was just beginning his career in the minor theatres and the provinces.

In his study of the music hall, The Early Doors, Harold Scott notes the Sans Pareil and the Lyceum were the leading variety theatres in the West End of London during the early nineteenth century (p. 93).  The performances at the Sans Pareil, E. Beresford Chancellor says, "were first of that heterogeneous character associated with the careers of some of the smaller theatres, and a medley of 'turns', much akin to those of a music hall, preceded the legitimate drama here" (Pleasure Haunts of London, pp. 123-4).  A bill for the final evening of the 1810-1811 season shows the strength of the Sans Pareil in this respect and suggests the varied entertainments presented throughout the season but seldom announced on the bills.  Many favorite songs were sung on 6 April:  "Live and be Jolly," "Bonny Lad," "Old Times," "Bag of Nails," "Four and Twenty Lord Mayors' Shows," "Let Fame Sound the Trumpet," and "Miss Muggins."   Goodwin, Miss Ward and Miss Lever danced a triple hornpipe.  In addition, George Bristow starred in a scene from Dibdin's aqua drama The Wild Man, "by permission of the proprietors of Sadler's Wells."  This scene, often given on benefit nights and first played by Grimaldi, showed "the powerful influence of music over even the savage mind" (Dibdin's Memoirs, p. 102).

On other evenings this season, Miss Acres sang Vauxhall songs, and Mr. Rose, visiting from Astley's Amphitheatre, sang James Sanderson's "Lilly from Jamaica; or, The Negro in London."  Herr Schmidt offered a trumpet concerto "performed for the first time on an instrument which lately cost one hundred guineas, being of silver, rimmed with gold, and the tone melodiously beautiful."

Henry Hengler, the Vauxhall ropewalker and father of Frederick Charles Hengler, founder of Hengler's Circus, danced "with baskets, also boys, tied to his feet and one on his shoulder."  James Barnes more than once thrilled the audience when he made his flight from the gallery "with accompaniment on the trumpet."

The roster for this season names twenty-three actors and twenty-one actresses.  Joining the company for the first time and for short stays were Bristow, Miss Acres from Vauxhall Gardens ("first time on any stage"), Asker from the Theatre Royal Dublin, and J. Lewis from the Theatre Royal Manchester.  Goodwin, ballet master for this season, "late of Covent Garden," was probably the "Master Goodwin" who performed at Covent Garden 1796-1803, son of the Covent Garden performers Thomas and Eleanor Goodwin.  Daly began his long tenure this season, joining his wife and such other stalwarts as Godbee, Robert Stebbing and C. H. Simpson.

The company presented eight pieces on the approximately ninety-two evenings of this season, which began on 3 December 1810 and concluded on 6 April 1811.

FM

Sans Pareil Theatre Seasonal Digest 1811-1812

Ed. Frank McHugh

Jane M. Scott's new pantomime dramatizing the legend of the poison tree and titled The Poison Tree; or, Harlequin in Java, ran the longest and was the most timely of her pieces this year, playing sixty-five times successively, beginning the first evening of the season.  It celebrated the British expedition against Java, 4 August to 18 September 1811, in which 9,000 men under Lord Minto and Sir Stanford Raffles conquered a Franco-Dutch army of 17,000. This pantomime was perhaps as elaborate as the Scotts could make it, with fifty-eight major and minor roles and fifteen scenes.  It surely gratified the audience's patriotic impulses.  A sign of this nationalism was the new patriotic song (announced on a 23 December bill) by Miss Scott and orchestra leader, Michael Parnell, which was apparently added as the piece gained momentum.  The pantomime offered spectacle—a bridal procession with an incidental dance by the corps de ballet, and it provided both information and fantasy, presenting several views of Batavia and of a "superb orangerie and garden of Asiatic plants" and The Poison Tree concluded its run 4 February 1812.  The pantomime that had opened the preceding season, The Magic Pipe; or, Dancing Mad, returned on 10 February for forty performances.

If Jane Scott did well by her pantomime performers with the openings she wrote for them, she seems to have done at least as well by her acting company, with such varied pieces as The Vizier's Son, the Merchant's Daughter and the Ugly Woman of Bagdad, a comic opera which ran sixty-two evenings and returned in the next season.  Mary, the Maid of the Inn; or The Bough of Yew, a romantic verse melodrama was submitted to the Lord Chamberlain in 1811 but first given in some form in 1809.  John Scott, proprietor, manager, machinist, specialist in magic lanterns and fireworks must have devised some powerful effects for such a Gothic piece as this.

The performers' roster swelled from the forty-four names of 1810-11 to fifty-eight this season.  Signor Montignani, (whatever his true origins) was active as composer and performer.  James Villiers, better known for his many years as a Sadler's Wells actor, appeared here for the first of nine seasons.  Mrs. Nathan E. Garrick (from the TR Bath), actor and singer, joined the company for one season, as did James Pack, acrobat and equilibrist, who performed in the two pantomimes and in variety acts.  Pack, touted in an 1812 Sadler's Wells advertisement as "The Protean Prodigy," later converted to Christianity and ungraciously wrote a pamphlet (1819) denouncing the theatres and circuses of his time.

The most notable incidental entertainments of 1811-12 included the dancing of Montignani, the singing of Sarah Jane Garrick, and the contortions of Pack, who sometimes played musical instruments "with head downwards," but more often made springs and somersets [somersaults], "the whole in a neat and chaste manner" (23 January bill).

John Peter "Jack" Bologna (1781-1846), popular as Harlequin to Grimaldi's Clown at Sadler's Wells and Covent Garden, but also known for his Lyceum Phantascopia and various other conjuring, hydraulic and fireworks exhibitions, engaged the theatre for Lenten entertainments.  He gave twelve one-man shows in 1811-12.

Eleven pieces were presented in the 120 evenings of this season, which began on 18 November 1811 and concluded on 9 April 1812.  Jane Scott enjoyed a benefit on 24 February, Pack on 3 March, Misses Stubbs and Ruggles on 5 March, and Simpson on 19 March.

FM

Sans Pareil Theatre Seasonal Digest 1812-1813

Ed. Frank McHugh

The season opened with spectacle rather than pantomime.  Jane M. Scott's Asgard the Demon Hunter; or, Le Diable a la Chasse, as violent and funny in its own way as a pantomime, was a Gothic fantasy which gave the audience plenty of lurid situations and stage effects.  At the climax of the piece the dissolute Baron Wildgrave, hard-pressed by the forces of the Inquisition who are closing in on him, takes the peasant Lilla, his victim, to a secret cavern beneath his castle.  On the stroke of midnight, exactly as a hermit murdered that day by Wildgrave prophesied, the cavern "assumes the hue of fire."  Wildgrave's mysterious confidant, Asgard, appears now in his true guise as a Demon of Darkness.  Infernal hounds (acted by La Croix, Gardell, Florio and Solnar) attack the Baron and he falls into the arms of Asgard, "who descends with him in flames."  At the moment of the Baron's descent (impressive enough to be featured on some of the playbills), the ghost of the hermit appears in the background "enveloped by celestial light."  Westmacott Molloy was the company's new machinist, but it is quite possible John Scott assisted in the lighting of this melodrama.

The return of the Giroux family was very important.  Gabriel Giroux had managed the Sans Pareil in 1807 and tutored the young Jane Scott.  Prior to that, he had been ballet master at the Paris Opera, and he danced at the Haymarket and some minor London theatres.  In his five-week stay this season, he contributed six ballets or divertissements and choreographed Asgard and The Bashaw; or Midnight Adventures of Three Spaniards.  He and his daughters acted in several pieces in addition to dancing.  Their acting did not please everybody:  "If the Giroux' consult their interest they will speak as little as possible.  As dancers, they certainly are of the first consequence to this theatre" (Theatrical Inquisitor, December 1812, 239).

A Giroux ballet was given every evening of the family's engagement.  Their benefit, 21 December 1812, was a festival of dances, including two ballets performed for the first time at the Sans Pareil.  In the course of these and two other pieces there were danced an allemande pas de trois, a dance from "The Sultan," a castanet dance, a Russian dance, two hornpipes, a Cossack, a minuet de la cour, a gavotte and a medley finale by all members of the family.

Perhaps influenced by Gabriel Giroux's return, Miss Scott gave two recitations similar to those of her early Sans Pareil years, "Music, Poetry and Painting," and "Marian the Constant and the Knight with His Visor Closed."  She acted in nine of her own pieces, six of them new this season.  As usual, she was indebted to other writers for some of the work she produced.  For example, Love in the City was "founded on The Romp and written into verse by Miss Scott" (bill of 7 February 1814).  Love, Honor and Obey was based on the "petite comedie of M. Patrat, L'Hereuse Erreur" (bill of 19 January 1815).

David Mayer notes that the character Black-Eyed Susan appeared in pantomime soon after Jerrold's melodrama of 1829, but that she had appeared much earlier—in fact in the Sans Pareil pantomime of 1812-13, Davy Jones's Locker; or, Black-Eyed Susan.  Mayer says, "A summary of the pantomime in the playbill of the 1813 Davy Jones suggests how extensively the character of Black-Eyed Susan belonged to the theatre, equally suitable to pantomime arrangers and to such serious dramatists as Jerrold" (Harlequin in His Element, 82-3).  The arranger of the Sans Pareil pantomime was Jane Scott.  Black-Eyed Susan, afterwards Columbine, was Miss Browne.  William, afterwards Harlequin, was Swan.  Pantaloon was Daly, and Clown was Young Jones (James Jones).  The Theatrical Inquisitor was not much taken with this piece; "Miss Scott's industry has produced Black-Eyed Susan; or, Davy Jones' Locker" (February 1813, p. 68).  So little, apparently, did the pantomime's plot control the harlequinade that in a special performance of Davy Jones on 16 March 1813, several scenes were withdrawn and replaced by scenes from the two popular pantomimes of the preceding season, The Magic Pipe and The Necromancer.  Such medleys, however, were not unusual in the pantomimes of the time.

Incidental entertainment this season included much dancing by the Girouxs, Swan and other members of the company.  Mezzia (Messiah) and Miss Acres were very popular singers.  Young Jones did his "wonderful tricks on a ladder" and Signor Rivolta gave Pandean performances on five or six musical instruments at the same time.  There were three benefits, one each for the Giroux family, Miss Scott and Miss Acres.  There were also eleven mechanical exhibitions by Bologna, Jr. during Lent and three presentations of Lloyd's Orrery.

Approximately 110 evening performances were given in the regular season which began 17 November 1812, and ended 24 April 1813.

FM

Sans Pareil Theatre Seasonal Digest 1813-1814
Ed. Frank McHugh

Both Miss Scott and Gabriel Giroux were very productive.  Just how prolific Jane M. Scott had been was shown by a notice on the 28 February bill that The Inscription; or, Indian Hunters was "the 27th burletta written by Miss Scott and performed in this theatre."  Nine Jane Scott pieces were produced in 1813-14, five of which had proven themselves in past seasons.  Of her four new pieces, two would be revived in later seasons, one of these, Whackham and Windham, being perhaps her most original and successful comedy.  The Theatrical Inquisitor, usually less than enthusiastic about Jane Scott's work (in August 1814, it would describe the pieces written for the Sans Pareil as "vile trumpery"), praised Whackham and Windham:

It does infinite credit to the literary talents, and scenic skill, of its fair writer, Miss Scott, and we augur that had it been acted at either of the winter theatres, it would have placed her in the first class of our modern dramatic authors:  as it is, she must be content to know, that it is by far the best production we have witnessed this season:  and that the treasury of her father has greatly profited by her exertions (February 1814, p. 128).

Giroux created five new pieces, The Fairy of the Fountain, Florenski and Nina, Love in the Grove, The Milk Maid and The Treble Lover.  However, these were only part of his total contribution as ballet master, choreographer and performer.

In four of the first five weeks, only two pieces were announced for each evening.  This fact is a reminder of how important incidental entertainments at the Sans Pareil were in this era, only a small fraction of which were ever included on the bills.  For example, Andrew Campbell's "imitations of several distinguished performers" was the only variety act mentioned for the first week.  Possibly the most popular of the incidental entertainers was the low comedian and singer Lund.  John Scott knew the value of his new performer.  In the bill for 29 November he asserts, "Mr. Lund will not sing or perform at a benefit announced at the Lyceum Theatre this evening as his name is improperly inserted, and without permission of the manager of this theatre, to whom he is exclusively engaged for the season."  Other popular singers included the fine actor James Villiers and a Miss Watlen.  Johannot sang on two evenings in March.  On Villiers' benefit night Miller, Mezzia (or Messiah) and Hunt returned to sing favorite songs, and Widdicomb "by particular desire" sang "Bucks Have at Ye All!"  In addition to the frequent Campbell imitations of famous actors, Rees Sr. gave his own imitations at least once.  The dancing featured the Girouxs, Swan, Flexmore and other members of the company.

The performer roster lists only twenty-four actors and seventeen actresses for 1813-14. Bemetzreider makes his first few appearances this year but becomes an important dancer and actor in the next six seasons.  Flexmore and Campbell return to the Sans Pareil after intervals of several years.  When Campbell first gave his imitations, he was, according to E. L. Blanchard, a government clerk and amateur entertainer.  This season he appeared sixty-four times as an actor, in addition to giving his entertainments.  Flexmore, "Master Flexmore" in 1807-08, was a principal dancer in 1813-14. He was father to Richard Flexmore (1824-1860), the famous dancer and pantomimist, but David Mayer points out that Flexmore Sr., was well known in his own right and was one of the three most skillful players of the pantomime Lover [i.e. Harlequin], the others being James Parsloe and William West.  "Each of these actors," Mayer says, "was better known as a 'posture master' than as a comic actor."  In the role of Harlequin, these dancers "were exploded from mortars, dismembered, daubed with stove blacking, flung in the mud, laughed at, spurned" (Harlequin in His Element, p. 44).  In the Sans Pareil pantomime of this season, The Magicians; or, The Enchanted Bird, however, Widdicomb played Lover.  Young Flexmore played Clown for the first time.

Again, Bologna Jr. gave his mechanical exhibitions during Lent.  A 23 March bill shows that his presentation was divided into four classes.  In Class I, he exhibited various mechanical contrivances:  a windmill, a clockwork piano, two automata figures and "the astonishing rope-dancer."  In Class II, "automaton [sic] shadows" were projected.  In Class III, an experiment in optics "portraying the shadows of the living and the dead" and "a grand display of experiments in hydraulics, of fire and water" were presented.  In Class IV, fireworks were ignited, "forming Temples, Groves, etc., etc., without the smallest appearance of gun-powder or smoke."

There were benefits—all quite lively, to judge by the many visiting performers who appeared—for Miss Scott, Villiers, the Giroux family, Schoengen, Mrs. Batten and Robert Stebbing.  This season of approximately ninety-eight evenings began 22 November 1813 and ended 12 April 1814.

FM

Sans Pareil Theatre Seasonal Digest 1814-1815
Ed. Frank McHugh

The house opened in late December 1814, after extensive reconstruction and the erection of a new front.  The theatre, according to the December 1814 Theatrical Inquisitor:

has been completely rebuilt, considerably enlarged, and the alterations are of the most elegant and commodious description.  Twelve new boxes have been added, including two stage boxes; and the pit will now accommodate eight hundred persons.  The gallery is so constructed that the audience have a full view of the stage even from the back seats (p. 406).

E. L. Blanchard describes the interior after the rebuilding and as it still was in 1819 when Rodwell and Jones acquired the theatre:

The form of the interior was that of an elongated horseshoe.  The proscenium, twenty-eight feet in width, had stage doors at the side, with a box over each.  The cove above was decorated by fanlike irradiations from a semicircular base of rough gold [actually this decoration may date from 1824, according to a description in the Drama of that year]...There was one full circle of boxes, with an upper range on a level with the gallery, and boxes were constructed at the back of the dress circle, to which a lower rate of admission was charged.  The gallery seated about three hundred.  The house would hold very nearly two hundred pounds ("History of the Adelphi Theatre," Era Almanac, 1877, p. 1).

The Theatrical Inquisitor supplies more details:

The ceiling is a finished piece of workmanship, representing Venus and her attendants.  The drop-curtain is also a beautiful production, representing Apollo and the Graces dancing round the statue of Cupid.  The house is painted on a light blue ground, with ornaments after the Grecian style.  The stage is between fifty and sixty feet deep, and forty feet wide, which gives ample scope for the scenery.  Here are, likewise, two stage pillars, in imitation of stone, which gives the whole a grand and noble effect (pp. 406-7).

Because of the delayed opening, the season was short and the company small.  Thirty-nine actors and dancers appear on the roster, but many stayed briefly or played minor roles.  However, such excellent actors as Meredith, Villiers, Stebbing and R. H. Widdicomb appeared, and such fine dancers as Yarnold, Richard Flexmore, John Jones, Miss Cooke, and Miss Gibbs.  Mrs. Riley (later Mrs. Bemetzrieder) began her association with the company this season.  John Jones, "late of the King's Theatre," succeeded Gabriel Giroux as ballet master, and Lawrence followed Parnell as bandleader.  Miss Scott, John Jones, and Lawrence—author, choreographer, and composer respectively—contributed eight new works to the eleven pieces produced in 1814-1815.  A brief notice of the company's efforts in the Theatrical Inquisitor for January 1815 was more polite than laudatory:  "The Sans Pareil continues to deserve and attract crowded audiences.  Miss Scott is greatly improved—she performs better than usual.  The ballet does infinite credit to the taste and skill of Mr. Jones" (p. 78).

Several bills insist at length on the originality of Miss Scott's comedy, Whackham and Windham; or, The Wrangling Lawyers.  The 20 February bill, for example, says of it, "Never was a French piece but wholly original."  The same claim could not be made for Love, Honor and Obey, which Miss Scott and Michael Parnell fashioned in 1812 from Patrat's L'Heureuse Erreur.  However, the bills did contend that Love, Honor and Obey was the original of Brother and Sister, which played at Covent Garden this 1814-1815 season.  (Parnell had become a member of the band at Covent Garden.)  Dimond wrote the book and Bishop the music for the Covent Garden piece, and Dimond's reputation for readily "adapting" others' works no doubt strengthened the Sans Pareil's claim.  The Theatrical Inquisitor for February 1815 reviewed Brother and Sister and found it pervaded by a "sombre dullness."  The critic, without troubling himself to review (or possibly even to see) Love, Honor and Obey, then dismissed the protests of Miss Scott, "a lady of considerable talent and great dramatic industry."  He said, "The contention is rather a sharp one.  Where the blame lies, or whether there be any blame, is really not worth enquiry.  The productions and complaints will soon sink together into an irrecoverable oblivion" (p. 150).  In fact, oblivion did not immediately overtake either piece.  Brother and Sister, "this highly favorite piece," played "as often as the run of new pieces would allow" at the Haymarket in 1816 (Theatrical Inquisitor, August 1816, pp. 140-1).  Moreover, "Dimond's amusing plagiary" got another expensive production at Bath in 1817 (Theatrical Inquisitor, March 1817, p. 229).  Miss Scott's Love, Honor and Obey, meanwhile, was playing at the Sans Pareil as late as the 1818-1819 season.

Despite the expensive improvements to the theatre in 1814, ticket prices remained the same (the bills do not mention a lower price for boxes behind the dress circle):  boxes were four shillings, the pit two, and gallery one.  Henry Crabb Robinson attended a performance on February 20, and noted that he and his brother were "cheaply amused."  Of the amusements he says, "We heard some respectable imitations by one [Andrew] Campbell.  And a comic piece Windham and Whackam [sic] in which one, Meredith, acted in Dowton's style very respectably—that is producing effect by broad comic acting" (The London Theatre, 1811-1866).  A January 31 bill states Campbell was imitating Kemble, Cook, Johnstone, Elliston, Farley, Emery, Munden and Kean.  Crabb Robinson does not say whether he saw the opening piece, an apparently successful "new Scotch ballet divertissement" by John Jones called Jamie of Aberdeen, in which all the company's principal dancers performed.  Nor does he mention the pantomime, Harlequin Rasselas; or, The Happy Valley, the last piece on the bill.  Harlequin Rasselas opened February 9 and played twenty-two times.  Yarnold, who had danced with the company since 1810, was Harlequin.  William Templeton, newly arrived from Dublin and remaining only this season at the Sans Pareil, was Pantaloon.  Richard Flexmore was Clown, as he had been in the preceding season, and Miss Cooke danced Columbine for all but two nights.

From the scant references to incidental entertainments on the bills this season, Mrs. Pearce and Minor, both newcomers, in addition to Huckel, emerge as principal singers.  Shaw, Richard Flexmore and Yarnold, assisted by the corps de ballet, took care of the dancing roles.  Jane Scott made at least one serious address to the audience, and Widdicomb a comic one, and Andrew Campbell did his imitations.  The notice of a 16 March benefit for Stuck, the box bookkeeper, shows the full range of variety acts the theatre offered, perhaps on every evening.  On March 16, Miller, Simpson, and Minor sang.  Richard Flexmore did a "whole new comic dance."  Miss Brady danced a broadsword hornpipe.  Edwin Yarnold and Miss Hart danced a double hornpipe.  Taylor tumbled and with Shaw did "a black and white" scene.

In addition to the benefit for Stuck, there were benefits for Miss Scott on 16 February and for John Jones and Edwin Yarnold on 6 March.  Approximately fifty-nine performances were given this season, which began on 26 December 1814 and ended 18 March 1815.

FM

Sans Pareil Theatre Seasonal Digest 1815-1816
Ed. Franklin Case

Based on the number of performances, the most durable and admired of these works were:  The Conjurer (a burletta, 49 performances); Love in the Vintage (a ballet, 46 performances); The Witch and the Owl (a pantomime, 44 performances); The Old Oak Chest (a melodrama, 39 performances); Jamie of Aberdeen (a ballet, 24 performances); The Inscription (a ballet, 29 performances); Harlequin Rasselas (a pantomime, 21 performances); Asgard, the Daemon Hunter (a melodrama, 18 performances).  Apparently, this season's audiences thrived on ballet and pantomime, with melodrama enjoying its usual strong showing.

During this season, Miss Jane Scott's burletta The Conjurer was produced for the first time in England with these words of praise on the bill:  "Now performing in Paris and through the provinces with enthusiastic approbation."  For the opening of her melodrama Asgard, The Daemon Hunter on 30 October, an entirely new architectural front drop scene was introduced, "representing a grand imperial palace" with statues and banners celebrating Roman historical figures.  The Two Little Savoyards was performed for the first time since September 1808, according to Nicoll's History.  The bill emphasizes that the performance took place "with the original French music."  Harlequin Rasselas, author unknown, was based on Dr. Johnson's tale, and its bill contains a detailed plot summary.  Master Snelling (age 4) performed the flute selections in Love in the Vintage—his first public appearance.  Alphonso was written from the renowned romance of Gonzalve de Cordova.

"Tippitywichet" sung during Stratagems was by Charles Dibdin, the younger.  While at Sadler's Wells, Dibdin had begun a series of broad songs and extravaganzas sung by the Clown, Joseph Grimaldi.  Of these songs, "Tippitywichet" and "Hot Codlings," became standards and suffered the dubious distinction of being appropriated by "piratical publications," as Dibdin put it.  The Theatrical Inquisitor had this to say in January:

Miss Scott deserves much praise for her exertions to render this house deservedly attractive.  The interior is really fitted up in a respectable manner, and several new pieces of merit have been produced, particularly one called The Inscription, apparently founded on Murphy's Desert Island.  The pantomime [The Witch and the Owl] is also remarkedly [sic] amusing (p. 77).

The theatre was dark for Martyr's Day, 30 January 1816, and for Ash Wednesday, 28 February 1816.

FC

Sans Pareil Theatre Seasonal Digest 1816-1817
Ed. Franklin Case

This house is worthy of its name, since of all the theatres in London, it can claim the praise of being the prettiest.  The decorations and embellishments are all new and in the best taste, and the tout ensemble must be allowed by everyone to be uncommonly pleasing.  The pieces produced and the actors in those pieces are of similar merit...his daughter...both as an author and an actress, evinces remarkable ability.  In the burletta of The Old Oak Chest...she is seen to great advantage in each of these capacities.  The pantomime is far more laughable than either of those at the regular theatres.  The Clown of Jones is not surpassed in drollery even by Grimaldi's (February 1817, pp. 31-32).

The twenty works attributed to Jane Scott certainly do attest to her skill as a dramatic author.  The Theatrical Inquisitor (December 1816) was as fulsome in its praise as the British Stage:

If we speak of this theatre, it must be in terms of unqualified approbation.  Everything is conducted with so much preciosity and care that we are lost in astonishment at their varied excellence.  Those who wish a treat will do well to be of the party to Madelon's Dinner.  The Clown of Young Jones furnishes an excellent dessert (p. 445).

In addition to the pieces, there were some lively interludes throughout the season, including a splendid whistler, a gymnast with remarkably strong teeth, and two highly spirited monkeys:  Signora Jackini, the female, walking with a balance pole on the tight rope; and Signor Jacki, the male, performing on the slack rope.  The bills indicate the popularity of such divertissements.  For example, on 21 November 1816, Whackham and Windham; or, The Wrangling Lawyers included whistling, which the bill refers to as "performing with the mouth, without the aid of machinery or trickery, the most favorite airs, with appropriate cadences, equal to the finest execution, and after the manner of the voice flute."  The virtuosity of the "Shropshire Whistler" was so admired that a later bill proclaims:  "At the particular desire of the numerous frequenters of this theatre, the undernamed very famous burletta will be performed as an afterpiece during the week."  This meant, of course, that the whistler would be heard again—and again.  The monkeys, brought from the Ruggiere in Paris, were added to the 13 January 1817, performance entertainment, which included James "Young" Jones playing the violin at the top of two ladders, singing a comic song, and dancing in "real wooden shoes."  In addition, Garthwaite, a gymnast, drew himself up to the top of the theatre by his teeth.

On January 7, 1817, in British Stage says "Mr. J. Jones, of the Sans Pareil, whilst fighting in the performance of The Old Oak Chest, a few evenings ago, accidently broke his sword, a piece of it flew into the pit and wounded a lady on the head."

The Strand Theatre, The Sans Pareil, was a successful financial enterprise as noted in British Stage, February 1817: "We imagine the proprietor must be rapidly accumulating a fortune.  His success is almost wholly to be attributed to the versatile talents of his daughter, who both as an author and actress evinces remarkable ability."

The season closed on 29 March 1817, with The Crown of Roses, Mary, the Maid of the Inn; or, The Bough of Yew, and Camilla the Amazon; or, The Mountain Robber.

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Sans Pareil Theatre Seasonal Digest 1817-1818
Ed. Franklin Case

The Theatrical Inquisitor of October states:

This popular establishment re-opened for the season on Monday, the 13th.inst....  after considerable embellishments in the decorations that have been long and much admired.  A new melodrama has been produced from the ready pen of Miss Scott, called The Lord of the Castle, which was received throughout with long and loud applause till it terminated in a peal of protracted satisfaction.  The ballet of The Woodman Prince is a pretty offering to Terpsichore and exhibits the graceful ability of Monsieur and Madam Leclercq to great advantage.  The corps de ballet is particularly effective.  We...cannot conclude without expressing our pleasure at a continued acquaintance with many old favourites among whom Messrs. J. Jones and Huckel, in their devious walks are entitled to undiminished commendation (p. 319).

The British Stage was also taken with The Lord of the Castle, "a melo-drama...in which serious and ludicrous incidents are very happily blended."  This journal also praised The Widow's Tears, "a burlesque operetta founded on Bickerstaff's Ephesian Matron."  It said this piece "bids fair to attain to considerable popularity; it is a very pleasant trifle, and extremely well performed."  Additional praise was lavished upon the dancing in the person of Madam Charles Leclercq:  "The principal female dancer at this house, Madam Leclercq, is one of the prettiest and most fascinating little creatures we ever witnessed; as a Columbine she would prove particularly serviceable at one of the winter theatres" (17 November 1817, p. 253).  In December, Madam Leclercq did in fact dance Columbine in the pantomime The Necromancer.

This season was shortened because of a long mourning period for the deaths of Princess Charlotte and her child.  The dark period lasted from 7 November 1817, through 21 November 1817.  Adding to this period the regular dark dates in the season, the theatre was closed for 17 days.

The bill for 7 March 1818, which included Whackham and Windham and The Three Crumps, remarks that the theatre was "patronized by all the Royal Family."  The British Stage (December 1817), notes "The comic songs of Mr. Huckel also afford much gratification":

Then I went to the Park and I saw the great gun
Which a present, 'tis said, from the Spaniards did come:
A very queer present, I swear by the Mass,
For we lend them our gold, and they pay us in brass.

On 14 March 1818, the season ended with performances of The Fortunate Youth; The Woodman Prince; Love!  Honour!  and Obey!  and The Three Crumps.

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Sans Pareil Theatre Seasonal Digest 1818-1819
Ed. Franklin Case

This season opened on 19 October 1818, with Bachelor's Miseries; or, The Double Disappointment, Kiss in the Ring; or, Who Stole the Apples, and The Inscription; or, The Indian Hunters.  On the bill, Miss Scott is described as not related to "persons of that name now performing elsewhere."  In British Stage on 19 October regarding Bachelor's Miseries, the following comment was made:  "It is much to be regretted that in a piece so short, a great deal of room should have been found for some very indecent dialogue."

In this season, the Royal Family, as evinced by notations on the bills, admired a remarkable number of performances.  Of course, visits occurred after the death of Queen Charlotte Sophia.  The theatre was dark in mourning for her death from 18 November 1818, through 2 December 1818.  The bill for The Prince of Persia; or, The Dog and the Assassin reveals that the actor Avery had received "reiterated bursts of applause from His Royal Highness, the Prince of Orange, the Emperor Alexander, the King of Prussia."

Master Bidder performed on 18 March 1819.  His father exhibited him as "calculating phenomenon" and he also appeared in Stratagems; or, The Lost Treasure.  George Parker Bidder became an engineer and was associated with George Stephenson and the construction of London's Victoria Docks.  The bill proudly noted, "Master Bidder has had the approbation of the Royal Family and many persons of distinction."

Smollett gave an address on the closing of the theatre—3 April 1819.  An advertisement states:  "persons having any demands on this concern are desired to send in their accounts with all convenient speed, that the same may be discharged."  And so the Strand Theatre, The Sans Pareil closed its doors for the last time before reopening under new management as the Adelphi Theatre.

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Adelphi Theatre Seasonal Digest 1819-1820
Ed. Franklin Case

One of the featured actresses this season was Mrs. Frances Alsop, a daughter of the famous Mrs. Dorothea [Dora] Jordan.  Reviewers of her early Covent Garden performances found her inferior to her mother:  "Her singing is sweetly expressive, and she sweeps the light chords of the harp with a truly tasteful finger.  Her proportions are diminutive without neatness, and her features alike divested of grace and intelligence" (Theatrical Inquisitor, May 1817, pp. 323-24).

Rather extravagant staging took place, particularly in works such as The Fairy of the North Star; or, Harlequin at Labrador, first performed 27 December 1819. This pantomime involved 16 scenes with a view of the palace of Labrador, a view of Dover, a medical laboratory, and a country inn, the "Rose and Crown."

Some pieces were not greeted with the kindness of genteel applause.  Love and Chase, performed 6 December 1819, was referred to as "an agreeable bagatelle ably supported by the talents of Messrs. Reeve, Wilkinson, and Chatterley, the last was less somnambulant than usual" (LTM Scrapbook).

The theatre was not devoid of charitable feelings towards those less fortunate outside its doors.  For example, the performance on 19 January 1820, of Run For Your Life had the whole of its "receipts go to the City Charitable Fund for the houseless poor.  The Lord Mayor attended as special patron" (LTM Scrapbook).  The British Stage, February 1820, reported "the receipts were £101..7s..6d. Yet this is a minor Theatre, which the Drury-Lane Manager, whose vast contribution amounted to but little more, would willingly suppress, as a nuisance."

Again, there was royal interest in the theatre.  The bill for The Fairy of the North Star; or, Harlequin at Labrador on 27 January 1820, announces:  "The Prince Regent has been graciously pleased to command that this theatre shall be opened every evening, as usual, excepting that of the Royal Funeral."

The season closed on 25 March 1820, with Rochester; or, King Charles the Second's Merry Days and Ivanhoe; or, The Saxon Chief.

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Adelphi Theatre Seasonal Digest 1820-1821
Ed. Alfred Nelson & Gilbert Cross

The management boasted on the early bills that it had acquired "performers and pieces of the first merit, anxious to deserve a continuance of that patronage they so fully experienced last season."  The company was basically the same as last season.  Though the number of actors increased from 41 to 77, most of the newcomers were bit players who played single roles in the pantomime or in one of the melodramas.  The number of actresses fell from 27 to 25. Major figures missing were Starmer, Gay, Lane, Willis, and Bemetzrieder among the men and Mrs. Alsop (the daughter of Dora Jordan) and Miss Garcia among the women.  Added to the company were these important names:  Brisac, Callahan, Dennis, Phillips, Miss Garbois, Mrs. Tennant, and Mrs. Harriett Waylett.  Mrs. Tennant was a Mrs. Vaughan, formerly a great singer now on the way down.  The British Stage and Literary Cabinet commented:  "Mrs. Vaughan has appeared...under the name of Tennant; [she] looks as pretty as ever, though her singing does not seem to be so excellent as it formerly was" (December 1820, p. 346).

The old standbys Walbourn, Daly, St. Albin, Paulo, Reeve and James P. Wilkinson remained.  The latter was praised by the Mirror of the Stage (27 January 1823), as one of the

very few original actors of the present day...The laugh which invites is enjoyed from the genuine flow of nature, as pure as pure as unconstrained.  We admire to see a performer act, as it were, internally (a want of which is too prevalent, more especially with comic pretenders), language to be the secondary means of communicating the business and character of the scene—to discover in an actor's look and gesture the 'spring of action'.  Such admiration may be ever awakened by an acquaintance with the portraits of this gentleman.  The simpleton, the eccentric, and the boor alike receive from his judicious touch the unfading glowing colours of reality—he makes them his own...There is no swaggering into good opinion (p. 1).

Miss Collier, an actress who had joined the company from the Theatre Royal, York, was involved in a serious accident during a performance of St. Cuthbert's Eve on 14 October.  The actress, as The British Stage and Literary Cabinet reported, "having to mount a ladder to appear at the battlements of a castle, when near the top, she was seized by a sudden giddiness and fell on the stage.  A surgeon was sent for, and she was conveyed home much hurt" (December 1820, p. 346).  Miss Yates had to take her part.  Although Miss Collier evidently recovered, appearing in November as Donna Beatrice in The Deuce Is in Her, she last appeared on 8 February 1821.  After that date, there is no record Miss Collier ever appeared at the Adelphi again.

One piece certainly pleased the audience.  It was A Burletta of Errors, based on John Dryden's Amphitryon.  Dryden's play was adapted from the comedies of Plautus and Moliere and published in 1690.  Jupiter imitates Amphitryon in order to enjoy the favors of the latter's wife, Alcmena.  Jupiter orders Mercury to imitate Sosia, Amphitryon's slave.  The comedy centers on the successive arrivals of the two Amphitryons and two Sosias at Amphitryon's palace and climaxes with the meeting of the disguised Jupiter and Amphitryon.  The play was lengthened from two to three acts on 20 November 1820.

Reeve's benefit, 18 December 1820, was billed as "Under the patronage of the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor and sheriffs of London, who intend, on this occasion, to honor the theatre with their presence."

Greenwood's benefit was in April, and Rowbotham came over from the E.O.H. Some years later, The Mirror of the Stage commented of the latter, he "is correct, persecutingly correct.  He speaks and acts by compass and rule, he is a turner of syllables to an indescribable fineness, there is no fancy work; it is all plain and smooth, yet still without point; it is the carved work of a bedpost" (26 July 1824, p.129).

Signor Paulo (Paul Redige) was a performer destined to achieve a measure of fame.  In this season, he appeared as Clown in two pantomimes and as Friday (another clown role) in Robinson Crusoe, a pantomimic ballet.  He was the son of the "Little Devil" of Sadler's Wells.

On Wednesdays and Fridays during Lent, Bologna Jr. engaged the theatre to present "An entirely new Pictorial, Optical, and Mechanical Exhibition called 'The Panoramic Mirror; or, Nature's Reflector.'"  On the same bill was a magic act conducted by Rosenberg.

Lest the public (or John Larpent, the Examiner of Plays) should think otherwise, Bologna thoughtfully included this disclaimer on the bills:  "The above performances have nothing of a Theatrical Nature in them; they are calculated to shew the beauties of nature, and may be visited by the most scrupulous."  A sample beauty of nature was a "View of Yarmouth with Lord Nelson's monument and the surrounding country.  The effect of a declining summer afternoon, with the coming on of night, and the rising of the moon...enlivened by a representation of the landing of the troops from Holland during the late war."

The wheel had come full circle, for in 1812 Bologna had presented his "Mechanical Exposition" at this same theatre then called the Sans Pareil.

There was a reminder of the problems of visiting a theatre in the 1820s. James Winston wrote in his scrapbook:  "A regular filch was caught in the pit of the Adelphi Theatre on Wed. evening.  On searching his pockets, they contained 7 silk handkerchiefs, 3 pairs of gloves, a French snuff box, an opera glass, and several bunches of keys."

From June 4-21 (after the regular season), the French equilibrists, Chalons, Davoust, and Company, performed feats of agility and strength.  Davoust would climb a cord to the top of the house, walk with his feet against the proscenium, his head downwards, play with hoops to prove he was not wired, beat drums, eat and drink, and waltz with his head downwards.

Such marvels did not pass unnoticed.  Robert William Elliston, lessee of Drury Lane, attempted to lure Monsieur Chalons to Drury Lane for a masked ball on 18 June 1821.  The Frenchman refused the overtures, but James Rodwell, hearing of the approach, wrote what the British Stage and Literary Cabinet (July 1821, p. 224), termed a "petulant epistle."  Elliston's "sublime reply" began:  "Rodwell—I have heard of a 'puddle in a storm' and a 'puppy in a passion'—at the one I am amused, the other I scorn."

Rodwell repaired to Drury Lane in haste, seconded by the singer, P. P. O'Callaghan, intending to belabor the "Great Lessee" with a horsewhip.  Elliston proved equal to the challenge and produced a "night-preserver," an instrument of self-defense formed of several short pieces of strongly bound cane with a knob of lead at both ends.  The Adelphi proprietor was struck with a blow to the forehead and fell, bleeding profusely, to the floor.  O'Callaghan, who managed to restrain Elliston until help could be summoned prevented worse mischief.  The Bow Street magistrate, before whom the next act of this melodrama was played out, gave Rodwell short shrift, assuring him that Elliston would have been perfectly justified in shooting him.  The whole matter fizzled away as such puddles do in storms, and Elliston, with "matchless impudence," inserted Mons. Chalons' name in his bills anyway.  Rodwell and O'Callaghan agreed to pay twenty pounds each to both theatrical funds and were fined one shilling.  (See also James Winston, Drury Lane Journal, edited by Alfred Nelson and Gilbert Cross, pp. 31-34).  Fines did no good.  Elliston was accused of two cases of assault in 1824—the same year O'Callaghan was jailed for a month for the same crime.

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Adelphi Theatre Seasonal Digest 1821-1822
Ed. Alfred Nelson & Gilbert Cross

Just half as many pieces were offered as in the previous season.  This was mostly due to the unprecedented popularity of Moncrieff's extravaganza, Tom and Jerry; or, Life in London, based upon Pierce Egan's famous work of the same name.  First played 26 November 1821, it was presented each night from then on until the end of the regular season (except on those Wednesdays and Fridays during Lent when serious music replaced dramatic entertainment), for 94 times, never with more than one other piece on the bill.

The Drama said of it:  "Several of the scenes are very laughable—particularly the night row at Temple Bar and All Max in the East in which the meeting of all the celebrated beggars and ballad singers of the metropolis is displayed" (22 February p. 207).

A correspondent to the journal, J. L. B., was not so taken with the Tom and Jerry craze:

Shoot folly as it flies says the poet; yet if Life in London is designed as a check upon our vices, candour must decidedly pronounce it a failure...our theatres teem, for the most part, with 'nothing but inexplicable dumb show and noise'.  And it is doubtless this circumstance that restrains many of our living bards from writing for the stage...Who would risk their fame and feelings on the stage when our minor theatres are nightly thronged, by means of the lucubrations of Mr. Egan, an author enjoying as great a share of popularity as Lord Byron himself?  (22 May pp. 321-22).

The Christmas pantomime, Beauty and the Beast; or, Harlequin and the Magic Rose, was played 54 times.  The only melodrama, The Corsair's Bride; or, The Valley of Mount Etna, by Planché, saw 21 performances.  Appearing in the latter was Watkins Burroughs.  Of him, the Mirror of the Stage said in 1823:

Burroughs, we think, would have been twice the actor had he played to the mind and not the eye—the judgment of men and not the approval of novel-reading mantilla-makers.  His action in the melodrama is good, but his voice, when it should demand, whines, when disclaim, cracks.  His walking gentlemen are his best performances, though sometimes coxcombical, lavender water and otto of roses, we cannot forget when he appears (6 October 1823).

Short ballets and farces labeled burlettas completed the season's offerings.  An anonymous but popular piece of the decade, Bruno; or, The Sultan's Favorite, with music by G. W. Maddison, was given 33 times.  It was, the Drama pointed out in October 1821, "A spirited translation of a lively trifle produced last season at the French Theatre in Argyle Street."  The reviewer had this to add:

The subject is the death of a favourite white bear of the grand sultan (who is possessed with a mania for learned animals) and the tricks of his minister, aided by a pair of strolling English exhibitors of wild beasts to conceal from his knowledge the loss of his favourite...The bustling activity of Wrench, the dry humour of Wilkinson, and the whimsical unconsciousness of Keeley, who share the burden of the action, contribute mainly to the success of the piece (pp. 300-01).

James R. Planché wrote seven of the pieces played this season.  (He had written 12 for the previous season.)  Planché and Moncrieff were responsible in large measure for the success of the Adelphi under Rodwell and Jones.  Their works were to be staples of dramatic fare at the Adelphi for years to come.  Moncrieff's Tom and Jerry defies classification, witness the genre description on the bill—"An entirely new, classic, comic, operatic, didactic, moralistic, Aristophanic, localic, analytic, Terpsichoric, panoramic, camera-obscura-ic, extravaganza burletta of fun, frolic, fashion, and flash."  The play is in the tradition of The Beggar's Opera and Jonsonian comedy.

For years to come, Benjamin Wrench's Corinthian Tom and Reeve's Jerry Hawthorn were to enliven the Adelphi stage while Logic, Primefit, Regular, and Dusty Bob became household names.  Female roles were important too.  Kate, alias the Hon. Miss Trifle, alias Sir Jeremy Brag, alias Nan, the match girl; and Sue, also alias the Hon. Miss Trifle, alias Captain Swaggery, alias Mrs. Mummery, the fortune teller, alias Poll, the ballad singer, parts originally played by Mrs. Baker and Harriett Waylett, were roles to which any comic actress would aspire.

The theatre was dark during Passion Week.  On Easter Monday, 8 April, Monsieur Alexandre engaged the theatre for his one-man show entitled The Adventures of a Ventriloquist.  The bill proclaimed that Mons. Alexandre "will display the various astonishing vocal illusions for which he has been so justly celebrated and distinguished on the continent, and which have been represented with such signal approbation before most of the crowned heads and princes of Europe."  This entertainment in which Mons. Alexandre sustained numerous characters, including assorted animals and fantastics, was presented daily until 20 July.  It was written by William Moncrieff and first presented under the title The Adventures of a Ventriloquist; or, The Rogueries of Nicholas.  Later it was billed under the subtitle.

The Theatrical Observer (17 April 1822) was particularly taken by Alexandre's entertainment:

His powers of ventriloquism are of the very highest order, and in some instances, his performances are truly astonishing.  The characters which he introduces have nothing very new or striking about them, but he contrives to put them into some very entertaining situations...The scene at the tooth-drawer's is too long, and a little curtailment would be of service throughout.  His most original and extraordinary efforts, without doubt, are his imitations of animals, dogs barking, cats mewing, a child crying; [they] are admirable, and then his plaining [sic], sawing, and tuning the guitar, together with frying eggs and other things, are so good they should be witnessed by everyone who has a couple of hours to spare for such enjoyment (p. 522).

Monsieur Alexandre extended his entertainment by of popular demand and delivered a farewell address on July 20, which concluded:  "England has been justly styled the stranger's home.  I have found it too the liberal patron of a stranger's talent.  The recollection of your past kindness shall stimulate me to merit it in future by every exertion of my abilities."

There was a benefit for a Mr. Bromley of Drury Lane, a teacher of elocution, on 22 July 1822.  The Theatrical Observer mentions it but gives no details of what was played.

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